Bummer, and frankly, a bit of a BS excuse by the LEGO jury. I'm inclined to think that this had less to do with the appropriateness of the Serenifly content for the 6-11 year age bracket and more to do with the cost/benefit analysis of acquiring the IP license vs. what they'd get in sales.

BrewBunny, I'd disagree. Lego is still a family-owned business and is very protective of the brand they've spent the last 120 years building. Steering clear of making products for a PG-13 property is pretty solidly in line with their brand guidelines.

It's also worth mentioning that not all product green-light decisions are based purely on ROI. The more progressive companies fully understand that sometimes niche products that don't make profit are still worth it for marketing purposes. You see products like this all the time on StarWars.com, and Lego has produced several limited-edition, low-profit sets to please their AFOL* community.

Lego is certainly within their rights to say no, but I'm kind of wondering what the point of that site is if they never had an intention of making it? Simon Pegg went on talk shows to actually promote the Shaun of the Dead one, then got rejected too. So why bother?

@ Ray Hill - As many have pointed out at the site, however, films like Indiana Jones (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a PG-13 rating), Star Wars (Revenge of the Sith has a Pg-13 rating), and Pirates of the Caribbean (all three of the originals have PG-13 ratings) have licenses under Lego, as does Spider-Man (PG-13) and Batman (Begins/The Dark Knight both have PG-13's). I think BrewBunny is correct - The cost compared to sales is more likely the reason we won't see these sets.

Premium sets would be kind of neat. Shaun of the Dead was close to hitting 10,000 and that wouldn't have passed either. If they did sell small limited collector runs I'm sure they'd sell like gangbusters.

In fairness to LEGO, trying getting the idea of doing a product for a company which targets pre-teens past an executive where if they watch the movie, somebody is talking about being raped for hours before the title sequence starts.

hacksaway, yeah, I'm feeling a bit like a test-market drone when I vote on these now. Lego thumbs-downed Shaun at the Winchester after it got all the votes. Makes no sense. WHY even let fans think it's a possibility when they know it won't fly from the get-go?

But again, gossi, how is that different from any of the material in the Batman movies? I found the latest one with the Joker terribly disturbing and am shocked to this day that it got a PG-13. I think that it's indicative of the tendency in the US media markets to give a pass to sex and violence when it comes packaged in a $200MM movie with one of the biggest studios behind it counting on a PG-13 rating to make back that budget. Serenity is not such a big franchise and lacks an 800 pound gorilla of a marketing department behind it demanding that Lego justify it's refusal to play ball, so it's easier to be picky about it and sniff at how it's inappropriate for the young 'uns.

Yeah, but Batman has many incarnations that are perfectly kid-friendly, even if TDK is not. Kids playing with these will ask their parents, "Hey how can I watch Batman" and their parents can show them several cartoons, a couple movies, significant portions of the comic, and even a live-action TV show. Not so much with Serenity.

Also, the reality is that if LEGO had put the kibosh on the Firefly voting early, people would have whinged about that, too. So, LEGO did exactly what it should have: let the user-submitted suggestion go until it hit the threshold of 10,000 votes at which LEGO weighs in.

Jobo, LEGO didn't just limit their Batman products to the cute and funny Alan West version or the comics. They had a huge product line based on The Dark Knight movie, including a Heath Ledger Joker mini-fig. I can see how that movie *might* be OK for some 10-11 year-olds, but I think it takes a lot of balls to claim that it's OK for kid who is six.

LEGO is free to market whatever franchises it wants to. But when they offer this as the reason for not producing something, it's fair for people to call BS on their pious concerns about propriety for their young audience, which concerns seems to evaporate when the film is a $200MM marketing juggernaut.

LEGO produces toys for children. Therefore all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content-appropriate for this core audience. With this in mind we have decided that as cool as the Serenity model is, the Firefly TV show and Serenity film contain content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.

My husband and two children are HUGE Lego fans and although my kids have never seen The Dark Knight, they still have a bunch of Lego's TDK schwag, including the Lego TDK video game. They are not traumatized by the toys in any way, so I'm not really sure why Lego thinks it's OK for them to be exposed to TDK and not to Serenity.

My understanding is that Lego feels that their primary market are boys prior to teen years.

Over Christmas, I became obsessed with building a Tardis with my kids' blue Legos. I was complaining to my 12 year old that there are no Lego Doctor Who sets. He seemed to think that there wouldn't be a big market for it thus Lego will not make them. ( no slight to the whoverse, it's just not a global phenomenon yet)

Later, he pointed out that minecraft, which is hugely popular among boys his age, is now getting a Lego set.

I think that he's right. Lego will go for a set if they think young boys will buy it. Lord of the Rings sets support this theory because the Hobbit is going to be one of the biggest movies of the year. I know my son already wants the elf because of the bow and arrow. And yes he read the Hobbit.

Sadly, Firefly doesn't have that right audience. It's in good company with Doctor Who.

BrewBunny, there were no The Dark Knight sets. There was a Batman vehicle taken from it, and the Batman minifigs were inspired by Nolans, but the Joker and pretty much everything else were inspired by other avenues such as cartoons and the comics.

Same with the game. It was not Dark Knight related. It was a love letter to Batman in the style of previous love letter Lego games.

Stop deliberately trying to make it seem like Serenity Lego would be even remotely feasible, by misconstruing facts.

To be clear, I actually like the idea of a Serenity set, and think it's something they could sell online. But I don't think LEGO target adults particularly - the make money from crowd pleasing, mostly easy things kids love.